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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1598.PDF
FLIGHT International, 28 May 1964 877 Convair's Co-in Also known as LARA, for "light armed reconnaissance airplane," this counter-insurgency design by GDI Convair is typical of many projects being evaluated by the Bureau of Naval Weapons in Washington. It could "take off or land in the width of a football field," carry a 6,0001b payload largely internally (including six paratroops if necessary) and cruise at some 2OOkt The first Swiss-built Mirage is due for delivery in the autumn of next year with delivery running at the rate of three aircraft a month to autumn 1968. Mr William Shanly We regret to record the death in Welling- ton recently of Mr William J. Shanly, a leading figure in New Zealand aviation. After retiring from the RNZAF in 1946 as Director of Manning, Mr Shanly became general secretary of the NZ Aircraft Industry Association and later secretary of the Aerial Work Operators' Association, which he built up from a body representing only aerial topdressers to one covering all branches of NZ commercial aviation. USAF Welcomes Visitors The United States 3rd Air Force at Alconbury and Bentwaters opened its gates to the general public last Saturday, May 23, Armed Forces' Day. A 30,000-strong crowd at Alconbury watched a display by USAF and RAF aircraft which included a stream take-off and landing by five RB-66C re- connaissance bombers. In the static park the station's recently delivered T-39 Sabre- liner was on public view for the first time. LORD BRABAZON OF TARA IT is with the utmost regret that we record the death on May 17, at the age of 80, of Lord Brabazon of Tara, Britain's first air pilot and a man who towered in many different fields of activity for nearly 60 years. One of the great figures of British aviation, his loss is felt in many other spheres, too, for Lord Brabazon won distinction as a motor- ist, as a politician, as an industrialist and as a sportsman. He was an expert bob-sleigh rider (he won a trophy on the Cresta run at the age of 70), a near-champion golfer and the head of numerous golfing bodies, a notable yachtsman and an inventor of considerable talent, being for 15 years the president of the Royal Institution and its Honorary Professor Extraordinary. He was, m short, a man of a Churchillian range of talents and of Churchillian demeanour; and he was closely associated with Sir Winston, first as his PPS in the Commons, and later as the holder of two Ministries, Transport and later Aircraft Production, in the wartime Cabinet. ••Lord Brabazon's early flights, first in •"ranee and later in England, established for mm an imperishable place in aviation and these are detailed on page 895 of this issue ") a letter by the aeronautical historian paries Gibbs-Smith. Before embracing nywg he had already won fame as a pioneer motorist and as one of the early racing inl9fS' Winning the Circuit des Ardennes ChHei WaS an early associate of the Hon flvf I R°lls in both the automotive and ying "elds; and it was seeing Rolls' death tur Vi910 Bournemouth Air Meeting that ™ed him from flying until the First World that war he forced his way> with nian determination, into the RFC mem f Iy associate<i with the develop-m ot aerial photography. Rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, he claimed before the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors to have invented the first effective aerial camera. Immediately after the war he entered Parliament as Unionist MP for the Roches- ter division of Kent, which he held until defeated in 1929. During this time he was a member of numerous committees fostering civil aviation, and was chairman of the Air Mails Committee, as well as of the Royal Aero Club. He served, too, as Parliamentary Secretary to the MoT. He was re-elected to Parliament in 1931 and was president of the RAeS in 1935. A strong opponent of appeasement during the 1930s, he was appointed Minister of Transport in 1940—not, as he recorded in his autobiography, to be able to foster the development of new means of transport, but simply to organize the repair of war damage to the old. He soon succeeded Lord Beaver- brook as Minister of Aviation Production but left the Government in March 1942, after a controversy concerning indiscreet remarks he made at a private luncheon. Although his remarks were considerably misrepre- sented, he described the end of his ' Ministerial career as "rather inglorious and very silly." Immediately awarded a peerage, he was soon enlivening the debates of the House of Lords. Mr Churchill appointed him chair- man of the Civil Aviation Committee on Post-War Transport, better known as the Brabazon Committee, which planned Brit- ain's post-war civil aircraft developments. It was ironic that his name should have been given to one of the least successful of the aircraft whose development his committee recommended. Lord Brabazon followed an active City career and was a director of numerous major companies, mostly in the commercial vehicle and motor car industries. He was chairman of the ARB and was an indefatig- able fighter for increased safety in flying. Only a year or so ago he was right at the centre of the JP.4 versus kerosine battle, castigating those airlines which used the more dangerous fuel for purely economic reasons and challenging publicly two eminent airline executives to stand in a pool of JP.4 and strike a match while he, Brab, did the same in a pool of kerosine. Lord Brabazon was president of the Royal Aero Club (of which he had been a member for 60 years) at the time of his death and a vice-president of the RAeS. To list all the honours and distinctions heaped upon him during his long and tremendously vigorous life would be a formidable task indeed. Fortune favoured him in that he was at the right age at the beginning of both the motoring and flying eras to become a man of destiny in both fields; but to have made so much of that opportunity demanded talent, drive and courage in the greatest degrees. Aviation, internationally, and public life in Britain, have lost a man who can never be replaced.
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